Adobe has said it will no longer be developing its Creative Suite range of software, leaving its subscription and cloud-based Creative Cloud as the only way of accessing the latest version of Photoshop. Adobe has been trying to encourage users away from the traditional one-off payment licenses and on to a monthly payment model, with features such as online storage and syncing between devices. This latest move ups the ante by making it the only option for future versions of the software.

Adobe is clearly concerned about alienating existing users and has set the pricing of its Creative Cloud products at a similar level to its existing software. The cost of licensing just Photoshop CC over 18 months (the typical life-span of a version of Photoshop), is similar to the existing version-to-version upgrade prices, if you commit to a 24-month contract. Paying to use Photoshop CC on an ad-hoc, on/off basis will cost more (though opening the option of only paying for the software when you need it).

Adobe says it will continue to support CS6 but will not be replacing it. This allows it to focus its efforts on a single line of products, rather than trying to support both, in tandem. It also says it will allow the addition of processor-intensive features, such as Camera Shake Reduction tool, where the work can be conducted in the cloud.

To soften the blow, Adobe is offering discounted rates for current owners of Creative Suite (including previous versions), valid until August 2013. The move will not affect Lightroom customers, who will continue to be able to purchase 'perpetual' licenses.

However, while the move clearly makes sense for a company whose software has always been so widely pirated, such a dramatic move will undoubtedly be unsettling for many people who have always thought of software as a one-off purchase.

Adobe Accelerates Shift to the Cloud

New Product Innovation to be Delivered Exclusively Through Adobe Creative Cloud

LOS ANGELES — May 6, 2013 — At Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today accelerated its shift to the cloud with a major update to Adobe® Creative Cloud™, the company’s flagship offering for creatives. Today’s update to Creative Cloud is packed with features, reimagining the creative process through a new set of “CC” desktop applications and enhanced cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities (see separate press release). With this update, creative files can be stored, synced and shared, via Creative Cloud, on Mac OS, Windows, iOS and Android; and Behance, the world’s leading online creative community, is integrated with Creative Cloud, so customers can showcase work, get feedback on projects and gain global exposure.

Creative Cloud’s advanced capabilities are making it a hit with the worldwide creative community: more than a half million paid members, and well over 2 million total members have signed up for Creative Cloud since it was launched in April 2012.

Adobe also announced that the company will focus creative software development efforts on its Creative Cloud offering moving forward. While Adobe Creative Suite® 6 products will continue to be supported and available for purchase, the company has no plans for future releases of Creative Suite or other CS products. Focusing development on Creative Cloud will not only accelerate the rate at which Adobe can innovate but also broaden the type of innovation the company can offer the creative community.

“We launched Creative Cloud a year ago and it has been a runaway success,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Media, Adobe. “By focusing our energy -- and our talented engineers -- on Creative Cloud, we’re able to put innovation in our members’ hands at a much faster pace.”

On top of new collaboration and publishing services and the integration of Behance, today’s announced update to Creative Cloud includes stunning versions of Adobe’s next generation of desktop applications -- including Adobe Photoshop® CC, InDesign® CC, Illustrator® CC, Dreamweaver® CC and Premiere® Pro CC. Adobe’s desktop tools, previously known as Creative Suite (CS), are now branded CC to reflect that they are an integral part of Creative Cloud and have been reinvented to support a more intuitive, connected way of creating.

Adobe is facilitating the transition to Creative Cloud with attractive pricing plans and promotions for individual members, teams and enterprise customers. For more details, visit: https://creative.adobe.com/plans. Adobe will continue to sell licenses for all CS6 products via electronic download from adobe.com and participating resellers.

About Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud is a membership-based service that provides users with access to download and install Adobe creative desktop applications; game developer tools and integration with the Adobe Touch Apps. With Creative Cloud membership, users also have access to: a vibrant global creative community; publishing services to deliver apps and websites; cloud storage and the ability to sync to virtually any device; and new products and exclusive updates as they’re developed.

Membership Plans and Availability

By signing up for Creative Cloud today, creatives will be set up to immediately download and use these latest cloud-enabled innovations from Adobe, when they are available next month. Creative Cloud membership for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership; existing customers who own CS3 to CS5.5 get their first year of Creative Cloud at the discounted rate of US $29.99 per month. Students and teachers can get Creative Cloud for $29.99 per month. Promotional pricing is available for some customers, including CS6 users. A team version of Creative Cloud includes everything individual members receive plus 100GB of storage and centralized deployment and administration capabilities. Creative Cloud for teams is priced at US $69.99 per month per seat. Existing customers, who own a volume license of CS3 or later, get their first year of Creative Cloud for teams at the discounted rate of US $39.99 per month per seat if they sign up before the end of August 2013.

Adobe also announced Creative Cloud for enterprise today and special licensing programs for educational institutions and government. For more details, visit: https://creative.adobe.com/plans.

Comments

I can see the validity of having multiple models for Adobe. If you have a steady stream of jobs and use the products each day for your work then you are getting a lot of bang for your buck. And the monthly fee will only seem like a very small portion of your companies total expenses.

Now if it is a hobby or you don't have consistent revenue from projects or income this model seems flawed. For one you pay the same as a business that uses it every day to make money as opposed to off and on usage for little or no pay. ( multiple plans might be in order, ex. 40hrs or less a month, unlimited a month, etc..)

One analogy I can think that fits the situation well is that some people buy cars outright and some lease the vehicle. There are reasons for each but you need to offer choice that fits each customer and realize that all your customers can't so easily fit into one model or price range. Some get fancy sports cars and some get POS vehicles for cheap.

Adobe has taken a deceive move and that is to pull in as much money as they can off their exiting and future customers.

There is no way a yearly minimum subscription of 240$ is going to cost less thenAdobe's periodic updates.

How many people really want their work open to HACKERS over a internetconnection.

If a person really wants to access their files anywhere in the world just simply acquire a web site for 5$ a mouth and a FTP program to upload anddownload your images.

I've been using Photoshop since version 2 and have been using Photoshop Extended for several years this is very disturbing to me having to pay the high cost of the initial program and plus a 350$ periodic update cost.

I have been a faithful Adobe customer for the past 25 years. With this latest CC update, they have lost me as a customer forever! I am NOT going to "rent" their software! It's been a nice relationship until now. By By Adobe!

Still ridiculous price for having nothing to show for it after a year. It's software. It's like your cable bill and we know how that battle is waging....SMART TV! Why would ADOBE want to try to win that war? To be honest, I don't really like anything of mine to be solely relying on the internet or thereabouts. I want to be able to turn off the computer and not have anyone "nosing" into my personal business like a BHO or trojan.

I was walking down the street the other day and I saw something interesting and I decided to take a photo of it. After turning on my Sony NEX-7 I got the following message on the screen: "Access to this Camera has been denied, please contact Subscription Services!" What the ....! Worse yet is that I was unable to download from the camera any images I'd already taken.

After rushing home I contacted Subscription Services, or "SS", whereupon they informed me that the $1200 camera that I bought a year ago now will not function without a monthly subscription fee! First Adobe and now Sony?! I hastened to my closet where my Canon and Nikon gear were vaporizing, apparently because I had failed to pay a continuing fee to those companies as well!

I woke up in a start! It was only a dream - or was it? Borrowing a theme from Apples' 1984 commercial, we need the hammer wielding athlete to come crashing in and hurl her hammer at the "Orwellian" face of Adobe! NO SOFTWARE FOR RENT! EVER!

If I came out with software called The CRIPPLE what do you think the response would be? What do you think would happen if I then explained that it wasn't offensive at all was actually a fun play on words, just an acronym for The Creative Retouching Imagining Program Pro Licensed Edition? How may professionals do you think would want to be associated with me or my software? How many would see me or my software as a professional alternative if my software's very title showed I had a complete lack of understanding of professional and corporate communication, PR and marketing practices? How many creative pros would want to tell corporate clients they don't use Adobe's CS but instead use a program who's very name is a discrimination law suit waiting to happen but is otherwise just as good as the CS? If they did do you really think those corporate clients would believe the creative professional understood the corporate world and thus their needs at all?

“We're driving migration to a subscription model in our Creative business faster than we predicted a year ago, and we are confident fiscal 2013 will be the pivotal year for the transition,” said Mark Garrett, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Adobe. “This will yield a stronger, more predictable recurring revenue model with higher long-term revenue growth.”

Adobe achieved revenue in Q4 FY2012 of $1.153 billion, exceeding its targeted range of $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion. During the quarter, the Company continued to accelerate adoption of Adobe® Creative Cloud™ as it migrates to a subscription model. Adobe also achieved record Adobe Marketing Cloud and Document Services revenue during the fourth quarter.

I thnk the concerns are mostly unfounded. For the majority of photographers CS6 is likely more than enough for a very long time. I'll stay away from graphic artists.Your copy of CS6 will always work and always open the images you created on it. If you're concerned about new RAW support then there's always DNG. And if you're worried about archiving for future generations then there's always DNG. And if you don't like DNG, well the Library of Congress endorses its use so your image will at least last as long as the USA does. And if you don't like that then create high res prints and make film negatives of those.And seeing as how CC downloads onto your computer anyway, it will be short order until pirated, stand alone copies appear.

Adobe's reasoning/gripe that updates made this scenario nearly mandatory, is bogus. PS already must be registered online, so what then, it's not possible to look at your version/Lic and see if you are eligible for a free online 'fixes' upgrade of your current version?And... With CC I'd also apparently be forced into being a version tester with no backwards fix on my worst day. As if Adobe always gets it right - eh, no.

Am I not like the millions that don't need every small fix Adobe makes, and in fact also don't need every RAW update that day either (WHAT? Do you all by a new camera each week?) AND The native RAW s/w won't suffice at all???

Frankly, a GREAT opportunity for the next s/w product in line to finally get an honest chance with a crowd who need to try other products.Adobe screwed us when they swallowed Macromedia, and now this. Alert Adobe! You're not THAT special and you can be replaced.

No people don't buy new cameras like coffee but people interested in new cameras get raw samples from them. Then of course people will rent new cameras, particularly if the new camera can do something that ones own camera can't. Last camera I rented was the Nikon D4--used my own 50mm Japanese Zeiss on it. I rented this D4 to for lowlight work and to see if it were better than the D3s.

Then no again, the raw extraction software that camera makers supply is usually horrid, I don't what to read about the Canon exception, the Leica LR exception and now the Samsung LR exception.

There will likely be the same demand for PS training materials. It will just be pirates who would have normally paid for PS but now can no longer afford it or dont' want the subscription out of principle who will be buying it all.

Well I guess I will have to cancel my Kelby Training subscription when its up in order to pay for my new Photoshop subscription? Nah I wont need either because I wont stay with Adobe.

Maybe I'll start my own Gimp training website as if I'm going to learn it may as well share. Maybe Scott had better start learning Gimp and the rest of the alternatives. He is far from what we can consider an objective source of information when it comes to Adobe. I am not worried about raw either as Capture one is really coming along nicely. So when they finally stop updating my copy of CS6 I'll do all my raw conversions in Capture One and use photoshop till it wont run on my computer anymore. And when lightroom goes subscription based I am sure the kinks will all be worked out of Capture One's new digital asset management. The certainly will have a lot more money to sink into R&D.

Actually, Photoshop CC will be only $10 per month for the first year for owners of CS3 or a newer version.

https://creative.adobe.com/plans Click on Single App .... Click on Requires Annual Commitment ... select Requires CS3+ purchase, and it's $10 per month. ................. (That just means you must have purchased CS3, or a newer version, to get the $10 per month deal.)

This is not cheap either but better than $20 per month, for the first year, anyway.

so generous of Adobe. if you naively assume that the price will stay at $20 after the first year, then over the next 20 years, your average monthly payment to Adobe will be $19.50. That small savings is their way of suckering you in and making you forget that they are taking away the perpetual license option. all it is is greed.

As a daily pro user of LR and PS, (i'm working on it now!) my workflow usually resides in LR and for the images necessary for PS are then exported to PS as 16 bit TIFFs where further work is carried out.

While I need to constantly upgrade my LR to keep up with RAW compatibility, I find that I don't need to upgrade PS that often, usually doing the every-second-or-third-version method, as older CS versions support large TIFFs and their relevant PSDs. Currently on CS5 and very happy with it.

I won't go to the CC model. Terrible idea. While other pro colleagues use the subscription service and love it, I prefer owning it outright.Why is it that difficult for them to offer the choice? Isn't it too obvious?

If LR goes that way, I'll be in trouble and will most definitely have to start thinking hard about looking around and relearning another program....

and this is from someone that has been using Adobe since PS5.5, and that isn't CS5.5 either!

I have used PS since version 6.0, and have developed an appreciation and respect for Adobe over the years -- until now.

No longer can I consider the latest innovations of a new release of PS and then decide whether to invest in the upgrade as a license owner. Adobe has ended that traditional model and replaced it with "pay us $20/month in advance, and we promise to keep making PS better." Besides being 50% more than the $199 / 18 months I had been paying, how can I now trust them to do that?

I'm amazed no one is asking that question. What is Adobe's motivation (i.e. profit incentive) to keep producing new features? Is the same corporate mind-set that dreamed up this CC scheme going to continue investing in R&D when they already have our yearly commitment in payments? It's likely that improved product features could soon fall into the same rut that product fixes have been in for years with Adobe -- rare.

What will happen is, as we upgrade our computers to the latest and greatest, they will be incompatible with older software - as has happened since forever - to the delight and glee of the corporations making computers and peripherals.

Given that, it only stands to reason that either the artistic industry's imperative to have the lastest and greatest or lose the competitive edge OR it's computers go to God, it will have to subscribe to Adobe or go to Adobe's competitors.

They know this and have done the numbers on all possible scenarios. They didn't get here by being stupid.

So I just tried to contact adobe to tell them how much I don't like this.They connected me to CHAT. After I complained about subscription the person on the other end tried to sell me the subscription. WOW.

Good bye photoshop. I upgrade my LEGAL version every couple of versions. I think it costs $150-$200 every 4 or so years. It's a lot of money for a casual amateur user that isn't making money with this product. Ain't no way I'm gonna start paying $240 per year forever.

P.S. Can you use this new product if your internet connection is down?

Your PS is an interesting question. I suspect not, otherwise what is to stop subscribers signing up casually, downloading the software and then bailing - again a piracy move that Adobe would have covered.

Is it confirmed that the software is actually downloaded to the desktop or is it used over the internet?

I wouldn't think over the internet as the response time would be prohibitive. I would guess the bulk of it is downloaded but then it must have a connection to make it work.

Actually I believe they will be using a similar licensing that the movie company VONGO, movie downloads via subscription, did a long time ago. How VONGO operated before the days of streaming video, was allow users to download movies for a subscription fee of $14.99 per month. The movie that was actually installed on your computer for 3 days. After use or the 3 days, the movie was deactivated - they were using a DRM method. VONGO was purchased after about 1 year and disappeared. If I recall NETFLIX was vast on the horizon. This is how Adobe is doing business - I am assuming, of course, they do not share with me their business. The software will download to your computer, however if you do not maintain your subscription your software will stop working - bricked. I don't like that. It's ok for a movie, because I don't COUNT on a movie like I do my software to make my living. So I'm out. Using GIMP and COREL, as well as other photo editors out there on the market.

Also as a artistic photographer, I have some lean years, and I don't want to have to worry about how I'm going to maintain my Adobe subscription. With software you buy when you have the money, and when you don't, you are happy you had the money then so you could generate some business now and you use what you got. With the subscription, I may have a month or two where I won't have the luxury of access. Deal breaker.

I would not sign up because I don't want to buy a subscription and I have no interest in anyone's cloud.

I place myself as a semi-pro. I've been an enthusiast for a long time, and now I find myself getting paid to shoot for some of my web clients.

I generally like Adobe products, but I don't like what I see happening here.

Also, I think PS Elements 11 is a lot better than some people here think it is. I've had a full PS CS3 installation for years and wanted updated ACR for my new camera. I also wanted a video prep solution, so I got the Elements PS/Premiere 2-pack for about $100. With El 11, I'm able to tweak my images quickly and efficiently. I also received the latest ACR upgrade. Bonus!

On the whole, PS EL 11 is a very good mix of drawing, painting, and photography tools - Much better than you can get for free and a bargain for the price. It's also a lot of fun to use. It will be a shame if Adobe kills this.

Good bye adobe. If i had to bet, i'd say this day marks the beginning of adobe's downfall.Hopefully this move spawns new software companies to bring an equivalent product to the market, as there's definitely room at the PP software dinner table now.

The main problem here is that Adobe is doing three unpopular moves at the same time. First they locks the product to the cloud. Then they introduces the subscription model. Then they dramatically raise the cost (for most readers here). Maybe its a good move. Maybe it is going to increase Adobe's incomes. Maybe. But ... they sure knows how to get unpopular :)

As I understand it the Photoline RAW converter has only recently been added to Photoline. Hopefully it will improve in time. I am using Photoline v15 before the RAW converter was added. I currently use Lightroom and DPP for RAW conversion and Photoline for pixel level editing for which it does a fine job. At least it reads, edits and saves uncompressed 48 bit tiff files without issues unlike Corel.

Reading between the lines in Gerard's comment about not having a Mac version ready to release, it sounds like they're regretting having dropped it now that this golden opportunity has fallen into their lap.

May 6: The day Adobe makes digital photography history, in one of the dumbest business moves ever. The beginning of the end for Adobe. Even if they apologize profusely now and take it all back, I sense that it is too late for them.

Just in case Adobe is monitoring this forum I will not EVER rent software, I will use Lightroom as long as it's for sale but if it goes to a subscription model I'm going back to Aperature. I find it funny that Lightroom is the one product that is not going to this model, could it be because Lightroom is the only product they sell that is not overpriced so it is not pirated nearly as much as photoshop. Hey Adobe here's an idea sell your CS suite for the educational price and maybe you will see sales go up and piracy go down!

Please note that Adobe has already said Lightroom cloud version will have premium features the retail one will not. Check the interview with the marketing vp posted in Dpreview a day or os ago. They will try to get everyone to move to CC by dumming down all retail versions.

Yeah .... that is of course their plan. One part of that plan might be RAW support. Adobe has already started that plan. I have CS4, and I cannot open some camera's files due to the latest RAW converter only supported by CS6. That incompatibility might have been necessary, or just a part of the general plan. Who knows.

Has anyone addressed the "Band Width" problem? I for one am limited to 5000mb per month upload! That isn't very many photos at all... A single file unedited from my Sony A77 is about 24mb, But edited that number goes quite a bit higher. The numbers just would not work for me at all.

There is no need to upload or download images but that kind of limit is a real limitation for photography I would assume. You will lose the benefits of some of the cloud advantages going forwards. I don't think this will be an issue for the majority of their user base.

Adobe is on the way to death, they try to hang themselves. Yes, there are pirated softwares on the market, but most of those are used by occasional shooters who do a few slides a year in travel or at the week-end party. Serious photographers and Pro's pay their license. Adobe will only lose those who anyway do not pay a license, but on the end make a huge free publicity for their stuff. Today, others do as well, and at lower prices. A soft reasonably priced will sell, and no need to pirate it. For sure, for some pirated soft is just a sport, not a question of any investment. For others it is a way to use something they can not afford. Microsoft knows that 50% of all windows versions are pirated, and often, Microsoft internals are those who put such soft online in news servers and Torrents, they know that this makes the popularity of windows. I would no pay a limited time license for Photoshop. As retired, i still get the soft free from my former employer who has a corporate license.

I wish I could say that this is true, but in my experience at least 1/2 of the film makers, photographers, and graphic artists that I know (and most of my friends fit into one of those categories) are using "shared" copies of Adobe software.

No problem for me. I just ordered Aperture and started to familiarize myself with it. As an advanced amateur, I don't need all of the power tools in PS. And Elements really seems only for beginners. I started with PS v3 and upgraded myself through CS 5. No more. Aperture will be fine until I explore the other options out there. What a shame...

Wow the first?? I'm impressed, if that's the right word. I've been disappointed with them for years for seemingly deliberately making their programs difficult, counterintuitive, and aggravating to use. This is just the final straw to ditch them forever.

I reckon this is another reason for me to go in the direction of being a film shooter for my own photography; my nicest camera is a Nikon F6. (My employer requires my evidentiary images to be submitted as OOC JPEGs, so most of my equipment is digital.) I had recently been considering which digital post-processing system I should start using, and if this is the direction the industry is going, the answer for me might well be to remain, mostly, an analog dinosaur. I shoot so very few serious images per month, on my own time, to want to pay a monthly subscription to the owner of some "cloud."

Bye Bye Adobe. In a way, you have helped many of us with a difficult decision we have been grappling with for years: is the licence fee value for money for the use we will actually get out of it? Sure, for imaging professionals, paying a monthly fee that can be written off as a business expense will be fine, but for those of us who have used your products for our non-money making hobbies, you have made it a no-brainer: ditch Adobe and use one of your competitor's products instead. I hope you factored that into your business model calculations.Speaking personally, I have been using Photoshop less and less, and Aperture more and more for the type of work I do as a hobby. Your announcement today makes the final break much easier- I will continue to use my licenced copy of Photoshop CS6 for as long as it remains practical on my Mac, and after that you will never hear from me again. I just hope that Apple don't go the same way with Aperture.

I suspect Adobe's bean counters have foreseen that they won't have enough enticing new features to compel outright purchase of Photoshop. Also, having a steady income flow has got to look good on the balance sheet, but I think it's going to bite them in the butt for the long term - time will tell.Looking down the road, for me, I'll be processing my raw files in DXO optics Pro and perhaps using Topaz PhotofxLab for the creative end which does have layers, masks, blend modes, better selection tools and free upgrades. I also won't be renewing my NAPP membership.

Inflationary pricing does not help anyone, providing better service does. It's more like a perpetual sucking sound to my revenue stream. Did you know the average data plan (for smart phones) is more or less price fixed at $100.00 per month here int the US? In the UK and most of Europe it's about $70.00. Where's the petition on that one?

Google bought Nik software and reduced the price from around $500 to $149 it would be interesting to see chart with sales results before and after this price reduction. I will bet that they have increased sales substantially. Adobe should learn from the pros.

Nope. I'll never take a bite. I'll continue to run with the version I have. I refuse to rent software from this company. You know what is too bad? Adobe was the software that photographers always worked for to get. Invested time and money in. Now, it is going to cost the new guy so much more. I'm not talking the corporations, they will just pass on costs. I'm talking the guy that does this for the love. But you know, I take the picture, the software just helps me develop it. What I have now works just fine. I just saved myself $2400 over the next 10 years by not buying it. Time for another camera maybe :).